Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill

Subject: Lyrics to
From: BFP
Date: 23 May 98 - 09:22 AM

Looking for lyrics to "I lost all my money but a two dollar bill, two dollar bill, two dollar bill....I'm on my long journey home" or something like this. Many thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyrics to
From: Roger Himler
Date: 24 May 98 - 08:24 AM

BFP,

Not many responses, eh? I checked the DT to no avail. I have heard this song. It is imbedded in my breain sufficiently that I would swear that Doc Watson sings this song. It is his voice I hear singing the lines you have provided. Come on Mudcatters, somebody knows this song!!!

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: Lyr Add: LONG JOURNEY HOME / TWO-DOLLAR BILL
From: Gene
Date: 24 May 98 - 11:53 AM

Here is a version. There are many different versions!

LONG JOURNEY HOME or TWO-DOLLAR BILL
Trad:

Cloudy in the west and it looks like rain
Looks like rain, Lord, it looks like rain
Cloudy in the west and it looks like rain
I'm on my long journey home.

CHORUS: Lost all my money, but a two-dollar bill
Two-dollar bill, Lord, a two-dollar bill
Lost all my money but a two-dollar bill
I'm on my long journey home.

Black smoke a-risin' and it surely is a train
Surely is a train, Lord, it surely is a train
Black smoke a-risin' and it surely is a train
I'm on my long journey home.

I hear the train a-comin' and I’ll soon be gone
Soon be gone, Lord, I’ll soon be gone
I hear the train a-comin' and I’ll soon be gone
I'm on my long journey home.

It's dark and a-rainin' and I wanta go to bed
Wanta go to bed, Lord, I wanta go to bed
It's dark and a-rainin' and I wanta go to bed
I'm on my long journey home.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to
From:
Date: 24 May 98 - 02:49 PM

When I start singing this one I almost always end up on
"Done Laid Around". The tune and words are very similar
and "Done Laid Around" is in the data base.

Subject: RE: Lyrics to
From: rich r
Date: 24 May 98 - 08:51 PM

Roger, you are right. The good Doctor has done it. I will have to hunt for the tape though and see how/if it differs from the post above

Subject: RE: Lyrics to
From: BFP
Date: 24 May 98 - 10:43 PM

Many Thanks to all!!!!!!!!

Subject: Lyr Add: LONG JOURNEY HOME (Doc Watson)
From: rich r
Date: 24 May 98 - 11:12 PM

Here's the version sung by Doc Watson at a concert in Chapel Hill, NC in 1979

Chorus: Lost all my money......(as above)

It's dark and a-raining and I'm gonna go home
I'm gonna go home, yes I'm bound to go home
It's dark and a-raining and I'm gonna go home
I'm on my long journey home

CHORUS

Black smoke a-rising and it surely is a train
It surely is a train, yes it must be a train
Black smoke a-rising and it surely is a train
I'm on my long journey home

CHORUS

I'm homesick and lonesome, feeling awful blue
Feeling mighty blue, yes I'm feeling awful blue
I'm homesick and lonesome and I'm feeling awful blue
I'm on my long journey home

CHORUS

What I find interesting about this song is that the tune bears a strking resemblance to a camp song I learned many years ago, "Do Lord, Oh do Lord, Oh do remember me......." and the same tune is used for another old song called "Dead Heads and Suckers"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 02:21 PM

Here's one more verse that I know:

Cloudy in the east and it looks like rain,
Looks like rain, Lord, looks like rain.
Cloudy in the east and it looks like rain,
And I'm on my lond journey.

It's such a short tune that I sing it as a medly with "The Roving Gambler",which has a somewhat similar melody.


Add "Poppa writes to Johnny" to the list of similar melodies.

---

Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 03:18 PM

Earliest recording listed in the Traditional Ballad Index is by Monroe Brothers, 1936, title "My Long Journey Home."

Some lyrics at My Long Journey Home

Widespread as 'folk.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 07:19 PM

Americans, please excuse my ignorance.
I understood that the $2 bill was a new note (bill) introduced for the bicentenary (1976), and not generally accepted/welcomed.
I wasn't aware of an earlier version to give rise to this song.

I would be happy to be corrected, and given an accurate overview.

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 07:37 PM

The two dollar bill goes back to 1862, when it was first circulated. Printing numbers decreased in the 1950s. It continued to 1966, when its class of notes was discontinued.
It was renewed in 1976 as a bicentennial federal reserve note, with different illustrations. Because printing numbers are low, many stories became associated with it.
It was considered a 'bad luck' bill by many.

The last series printed was in 2006, when demand started to increase. It continues to be a circulating currency denomination. For some reason, never popular with businessmen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 08:19 PM

Thanks 'Q' "What part of 'Omniscient' don't you understand?"

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 08:33 PM

The part that is not in Wikipedia, where I got the information. Forgot to credit.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 10 Aug 08 - 02:44 PM

I am saved hunting for the lineage of the Monroe recording by Q. On the small circulation of the two dollar bill: I (only) get $2 bills regularly on the Canadian side of the Black Ball line ticket window in Victoria BC. The last ship of the Black Ball Line is the ferry Coho, Port Angeles WA to Victoria BC. Two dollar bill is exact change (plus 4 bits) for a return ticket to the US side when visitors present $15 in US funds for the fare. I guess the Black Ball people like to halve the weight and volume of the money from the bank for the cashiers.:)
Carter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Aug 08 - 02:51 PM

Many people keep a two-dollar bill received in change and talk about it, so it is also good advertising that costs them nothing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 06:31 AM

I think a possible reason for the unpopularity of the two dollar bill is that it is way too easy to spend it as a one dollar bill. At least I've done that!

Lin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Richie
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 08:34 PM

As I remember the song is from the Yonder Comes the High Sherriff songs that can be traced to the 1800s.

Anyone have more info?

Richie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 09:02 PM

I have heard tell that in port towns, when respectable people complained overmuch about the rowdy ways of sailors, the Navy would respond by paying the sailors, one time, entirely in $2 bills. The local economy would be flooded with them, reminding the locals which side their bread was buttered on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 09:38 PM

Verse form of Yonder Comes... is similar. The verses do have the flavor of 1890-1920 about them, but haven't found anything of that date.

A company sold a lot of shirts for $2, and used a two-dollar bill imitation as an adv. in 1875, but there is no connection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Richie
Date: 11 Aug 08 - 09:55 PM

Q,

I think Meade has it back to the 1800s. Don't have the book in front of me.

The other version I used to play is "Deadheads and Suckers" which as I remember dates back to the 1920s by the Ward family.

I had a different version titled High Sheriff but I can't find it.

Richie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 20 Aug 11 - 11:37 AM

A two dollar bill was how much both a bottle of whiskey and a session with a prostitute cost, therefore, it was the currency of dirty rounders who found themselves caught in a vicious cycle of vices, leaving the lonely, cut off from a happy family life and seeking relief from their homesickness in booze and fast women. Fits the theme of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Long Journey Home / Two-Dollar Bill
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Aug 11 - 06:49 PM

In my youth, I was told that $2 was the minimum bet at a racetrack, so gamblers tended to carry a lot of $2 bills. Gamblers were regarded as lowlifes, so if someone saw that you had a $2 bill, they'd tease you by saying, "Aha! I see you've been to the racetrack again."

Even if it's true that a minimum bet was $2, I seriously doubt that gamblers preferred to place bets with a $2 bill rather than two ones, or that there were more $2 bills in circulation at a racetrack than anywhere else. But that was the folklore, and if you didn't want to be stigmatized as a gambler, or were just tired of the jokes, you'd tend to avoid $2 bills.

I don't see why you'd be any more likely to mistake a $2 bill for a one, than to mistake a five or a ten for a one. In fact, it seems you'd be less likely to, because a $2 bill had some red ink, and no other bills did. Unless, of course, you were so poor that you never had any fives or tens.